By Alex Altman
Special for The State News
The MSU gymnastics team put together its best performance of the season on Saturday, defeating Western Michigan and Pittsburgh at Jenison Field House in front of a large crowd.
The Spartans finished with a combined score of 193.550, an improvement of more than four points from last weekend's meet when they lost to Kentucky 192.775 to 189.225.
Despite battling an ankle sprain, junior Kristen Coleman finished the meet in first place with an all-around score of 38.500, helping improve the Spartans' record to 2-1.
Freshman Katlyn Roggensack finished with the fourth best score of 38.200, and junior co-captain Chayla Hill finished in first place in both the vault and floor exercise, earning scores of 9.850 and 9.875, respectively. Hill also finished second in the balance beam, recording a score of 9.800.
"We made a huge improvement over last weekend, and I think the competitiveness in each and every athlete came out today," MSU head coach Kathie Klages said.
The Spartans led throughout the entire meet, but Pitt and Western Michigan wouldn't let them get ahead by too much until MSU's final event, the floor exercise, in which four Spartans finished in the top six.
Pitt's Andrea Arlotta finished the meet with a combined score of 38.375, second only to Coleman and Western Michigan's Jennifer Sturgis who finished third with a score of 38.325. Overall, Pitt finished with a team score of 190.825, to top the Broncos' 189.425 for second place.
The Spartans received a great deal of help again from their first-year athletes. Roggensack added to her second-place overall performance in last weekend's meet against Kentucky with a fourth-place finish on Saturday.
Freshmen Dani Fanning and Jenna Russell also performed well in their respective events at their second collegiate meet. Sophomore Rhiannon Banda-Scott finished with an all-around score 36.775 in her second competition since transferring from Central Michigan.
"Our freshmen and first-year sophomores really did an awesome job," Coleman said. "They've been thrown into a situation that they are not really used to, and they've been amazing and I'm proud of them all."
MSU will look to build on Saturday's performance on the road. The Spartans travel to Ohio State to take on the Buckeyes before heading west to compete with Illinois-Chicago and Denver the following weekend.
With a long road ahead of them, the team felt it was important to put together a great performance on Saturday in front of their own fans.
"It was important for us to improve so we can feel better about ourselves," Hill said. "We needed not just to get a win but to improve upon last week's performance."
